Obama's to-do list grows after overseas trip

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By Stephen Dinan

President Obama's weeklong trip overseas yielded modest accomplishments but left a host of unanswered questions and self-imposed deadlines that will test whether his power of personal persuasion will work in international diplomacy.

Mr. Obama left Russia with a December deadline for finishing a nuclear arms reduction treaty. He left a summit of nations in Italy with a deadline, also in December, for completing an agreement to address climate change. He also has a deadline in September for checking Iran's nuclear ambitions, perhaps with sanctions.

The chance of meeting all or even any of these will be difficult, analysts agree.

"We're going to learn more toward the end of the year. Then we'll see to what extent the Russians are ready to join us in tough sanctions on Iran," said Andrew C. Kuchins, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Russia-Eurasia program.

He said Russia's intention on missile treaties might also come clearer by then. The whole situation could get more complicated, though, if there's an outbreak of violence in the former Soviet republic of Georgia where, he said, "things are looking rather tense right now."

While Western European leaders were quite taken with Mr. Obama - going so far as to applaud his arrival at one photo session in Italy - Russian leaders were unmoved.

Two days after Mr. Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev his plans for missile defense were aimed at Iran, Mr. Medvedev rejected that, saying he still viewed plans for a defense site in Eastern Europe as a threat.

And even as the Russian president signed on to the Group of Eight major economies document calling for 80 percent emissions cuts by 2050, his adviser told reporters they couldn't meet the target and said it was "unacceptable."

The Russians weren't the only ones who balked at the climate change agenda. Developing countries such as China, Brazil and India, rejected Mr. Obama's and Western European leaders' request that they agree to cut their greenhouse emissions.

Still, the National Security Network, a liberal-leaning advocacy group, said Mr. Obama did get much of what he wanted from the trip: a unified statement from the G-8, including Russia, condemning Iran's nuclear program as well as a $20 billion world commitment - $5 billion more than expected - for food aid to developing countries, with new good-government strings attached to the funding.